Bail refused for bank assistant

Magistrates refused to grant bail to Sara Drage , a 23-year-old bank cashier whose parents live in Bexhill, when she appeared before them on Friday morning and she was remanded in custody.

Dressed in a green V-neck jumper with black trousers and her hair tied up in a bun, Drage spoke only to confirm her name as she appeared in the dock accused of stealing 84,700 from the Halifax agency run by Steel and Co in Old Town.

She was arrested after money was reported missing from a company safe and ATM on Monday May 14.

Staff at the branch in Albert Parade, Green Street, noticed the money had gone missing after they arrived for work.

Drage was reported missing the same morning when she did not turn up for work.

A police appeal for information on her whereabouts had spread to France and Interpol was involved in the hunt.

Her car and passport had been used to book a ferry crossing from Dover to Calais.

She was detained by detectives when she landed at Gatwick Airport on a flight from Barcelona.

In court on Friday, Drage's solicitor Alan Hobden made an application for her to be released on bail but this was turned down by the three magistrates who remanded her in custody until June 14 when the case is to be committed to the Crown Court.

She is being held at HMP Bronzefield, a women's prison in Ashford, Middlesex.